Suchergebnisse

"Civil society participation has become the new mantra in foreign development assistance. The international finance institutions claim that civil society participation in economic policy-making helps to formulate pro-poor policies - by giving 'voice to the poor' - in order to achieve equitable growth. Also, civil society support has become an important instrument in the good governance 'tool box' of most bilateral cooperation programmes, based on the assumption that civil society forms a critical counterweight to an elitist government. In short, civil society participation is seen as the panacea against poverty and authoritarianism in development cooperation. As a consequence of this global trend, aid recipient countries in the developing world have witnessed a transformation of aid flows and conditionalities. This article discusses the promises and pitfalls of this development, with particular attention given to the case of Bolivia. It uses the example of this 'donor darling' to inquire in what way civil society is shaped by international development cooperation and its requirements at the national level. The Bolivian case is particularly apt to illustrate the dialectic relationship between foreign aid donors and local civil society. The Bolivian government organised a countrywide National Dialogue to consult with civil society on the issue of the PRSP formulation. It has gone further than most in responding to the global trend by implementing civil society participation at a national level. Even so, the historical divide between Bolivia's governing elite and society has only deepened. The schism culminated in the dismissal of two presidents by the people, while economic growth has yet to set in and poverty continues. The article discusses how international donors' participation programmes can raise societal expectations in a way that can only be diasppointed by the recipient government. By doing so, civil society participation programmes can de-legitimize a nascent representative democracy, without offering a functioning participatory democracy as an alternative." (author's abstract)